I’m at Erin Quinn’s blog on Wednesday, talking about the inspiration for my award winning work of science fiction romance, Captured. Please stop by and say hello.
It seems to me this is the perfect time to talk about Cowboys and Aliens - which hubby and I saw on Sunday night.
I knew the moment I spotted the very first ad for the movie I’d have to see it in the theater, for a few reasons: Daniel Craig, Daniel Craig on a horse, Harrison Ford, cowboys, aliens and Daniel Craig’s bare chest. I have a thing about Daniel Craig. Rachel Weisz is one lucky woman.
Okay, so anyway, yeah, the movie’s fun and all that, real entertaining, worth your dollar, but a couple things bothered me - and here’s where Captured comes in. In film these days, aliens are portrayed as super villains. If I’m going to watch villainous aliens, I’d much prefer the aliens in Independence Day because while their technology was far superior to ours, their bodies were just as fragile.
In Captured, Ekkatt’s people, the Atun, are somewhat bigger and stronger, but they are humanoid, and in truth, their concerns are similar to ours. Unlike the aliens in Cowboys and Aliens, they can’t run at 60-70 mph, they can’t take down a horse and rider with a sweep of their arm, they can’t fight with ten arrows sticking out of their backs and five blasts to the chest with a six-shooter.
I’m going to go out on a limb here (not really) - if an alien species ever does visit us, I suspect they won’t need to probe us or laser us to learn about our bodies because if they have the technology to get here in the first place, they’ll have scanners of some sort. Think the predator in Predator (I love love love that movie). Or something far more advanced. I mean c’mon, we have all sorts of scanners - infrared, magnetic resonance imaging scanners, all sort of nuclear and x-ray scanners and we’re pretty primitive.
I also found it amusing that the few humans in the posse kept getting killed by the massive numbers of aliens, but somehow the number of humans never diminished and in fact, seemed to increase. Ah, suspension of disbelief…
I had a few other issues with the movie, but you know, watching Daniel Craig ride a horse as though he was born to it, made all those issues fade to black.
By the way, Charlie over at Smart Girls Love Scifi has a great discussion going on about Cowboys and Aliens if you want to talk more about the movie.
Hmmm, not sure if I want to see this one yet. But I’m with you about Daniel Craig.
Predator! We need a movie night….Aliens, Aliens 2, Predator, etc! Fun!
I know I’m going to see Cowboys and Aliens. I don’t care if it’s an imperfect movie I just want to watch Daniel Craig fighting for his life in western wear! Bargain matinee here I come. lol
XXOO Kat
Predator and Alien(s) - I love those movies!!
I was thinking that too, especially in the big battle. Maybe the cowboys were the aliens and the aliens were just, ugly.
I didn’t believe their physiology. DH thought the ugly outer body was a shell and the real creature was inside. I thought why have a second pair of slimy hands inside the slimy hard body. It’s like a jello M&M.
I love all those movies. I’d never thought about friendly aliens. Well, except for ET.
Ciara - I’m assuming aliens, if we ever meet any, will be either indifferent or more likely, helpful. Who knows? Maybe they’ll decide we aren’t worth bothering with.
Steph - I too was thinking, exo-skeleton, but man, gross! Like a combination of the aliens from Independence Day and the weird people from Mars in Total Recall.
Me too, Tessie - I can watch Predator over and over again. Alien scares me! The sequel isn’t quite so bad.
Kat…Daniel Craig, Daniel Craig, Daniel Craig. Nothing else matters. I love Harrison Ford, but they wrote his character as a bit schizo.
Oh yeah, Penny! Monster night!
Amber - with your new little one, wait for Netflix. But yeah, Daniel Craig. Major yum.
I haven’t seen Cowboys and Aliens yet, but I want to.
http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2011/08/words-of-wisdom-to-keep-you-writing.html
Well worth seeing, Brenda - fun!
Great post. I do have to weigh in on the scans vs. probes debate. Scans are great if you want to obtain the most information with the least amount of pain for the subject, but something tells me these aliens were not handing out satisfaction surveys. So if you want to find out what’s going on inside or just have a little fun there is really nothing like a glowing probe to get to the heart of the matter, so to speak. Besides, who wants to watch Daniel Craig get an MRI?
Oh Yoshi…Yoshi…wherefore art thou, Yoshi?!? So true! ROTFLMAO!
I like your theory. Really don’t want to worry about getting probed:)